In 2007, a young Lionel Messi posed for photos with a baby in the dressing room of the Camp Nou in Barcelona for a charity calendar photo shoot.

Messi, who was 20, already established himself as a prodigy in the world of football. But little did the photographer know that the baby would also make waves in international football less than 17 years later.

Messi was bathing Lamine Yamal - the 16-year-old Spanish ‘wonder kid’ who has already taken the European Championships by storm.

His amazing goal against France in the semi-final will no doubt be remembered forever. At 16 years and 362 days, the strike also made him the youngest man to score in the tournament's history.

The long-forgotten photo of Messi and Yamal resurfaced after Yamal’s father posted it on Instagram last week with the text: "The beginning of two legends."

The photos were taken by Joan Monfort, who works as a freelance photographer for the Associated Press (AP). The shoot came about after Unicef did a raffle in the town of Mataró where Lamine’s family lived, he said.

Monfort remembered while speaking to AP, “They signed up for a raffle to have their picture taken at the Camp Nou with a Barça player. And they won the raffle.” 

The photographer also remembered adding, “The assignment was not a straight forward one. Messi is a pretty introverted guy, he is shy. He was coming out of the locker room and suddenly he found himself in another locker room with a plastic tub full of water and a baby in it. It was complicated. He did not even know how to hold him at first.”

Like Messi, Yamal went on to play for Barcelona, where he became the club's youngest-ever starter and goal-scorer, as well as the youngest scorer in the Spanish League.